Pacific oysters for outside refugiums

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Being into nps corals, my refugium has a little of everything. Shrimp, snails, abalone,clams (littlenecks,cherrystones), and especially sol azul oysters from Baja.

Tank water was lowered to 73 degrees, getting ready for a shipment of dendronephthya.
I blend squid, fish guts,fish pellets(marine),spiralina, Chlorella, kelp powder, all raw, organic, some raw egg, macroalgae. Strain and refrigerate majority. Leave some(pint), sitting out and feed 20ml, in the evening. Haven't lost any of them.

I don't need to get in the details of benefits from oysters and clams.
Here's some pictures.

 

[MarsRover]

Your littlenecks and cherrystones just live in your refugium? They don't perish due to the warm water?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

No they don't, but recently I lowered temp. to 73 degrees. I lowered the temp. for some nps corals coming.I think they like lower temp.

 

[Dogtown]

Hello, it looks like you are keeping large live oysters in your refugium. I also noticed someone else keeping large oysters in their refugium recently. What exactly are the benefits? I'm guessing that the oysters may help to clean the water but there are probably more benefits as well. Would you mind sharing?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Benefits of oysters are well documented. When it comes to reef keeping, every tank is different, I'm in the process of keeping nps corals, dendronephthya and Scleronephthya, and many others.
Feeding is very heavy, I use sulfur denitrators to help bring down nitrates, it has advantages and disadvantages. I keep 30 gallon dt, to keep chemicals to replenish at a minimum. The other benefits of oysters for me is the mulm/bacteria on oysters when I shake them throughout the day.

Not all oysters are the same. When available I buy sol azul(baja) oysters. Seem to survive in reef tank. Thanks for the question.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Bump

 

[sfin52]

Bump

Interesting trying to find some in my local area. I just sent sol Azul a message. Being in the midwest I'm betting they are hard to locate

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Interesting trying to find some in my local area. I just sent sol Azul a message. Being in the midwest I'm betting they are hard to locate

Let me know,

 

[sfin52]

Let me know,

Sure will.

 

[User1]

Anything natural that we can put in and keep healthy is a benefit. At least I think so anyway. The key to some of the oysters or similar clams is the temperature as you know. I used to keep clams in my sandbed that I purchased years ago from indo pacific sea farms. They really did wonders for nutrients and the sandbed overall.

Have you tried to add any clams such as maxima's?

 

[KrisReef]

Pacific Oysters are generally available for live collection in San Diego. They are an invasive species here. I think they could be fairly easy to ship live, but they are large and heavy (especially if they are attached to rocks).

 

[Alex808]

Anything natural that we can put in and keep healthy is a benefit. At least I think so anyway. The key to some of the oysters or similar clams is the temperature as you know. I used to keep clams in my sandbed that I purchased years ago from indo pacific sea farms. They really did wonders for nutrients and the sandbed overall.

Have you tried to add any clams such as maxima's?

I’ve wondered about clams and wanted to modify my sand bed with smaller granule size sand and came across talk of keeping clams for the health of the tank. How big were the clams???

 

[User1]

I’ve wondered about clams and wanted to modify my sand bed with smaller granule size sand and came across talk of keeping clams for the health of the tank. How big were the clams???

Order size or arrive I guess was about 1/2 to 1 inch in size. After acclimation rested them on the sand bed and off they went. Interesting to watch but they buried very quick. Didn't pay much attention to them but they moved around the bed a lot which kept it turned. Every once in a while I would see one breaching the tip of the bed for a brief time and gone a couple hours later. Never really understood what they do. All in all i would guess 4 to 6 years they lasted. I lost the last one when I moved the 40 breeder to my 210 upgrade. I didn't move all of the sand but thought I searched well. Turns out I left one behind and that was it. I'm a dummy.

My sand bed was around 4 to 6 inches and they did great. I order from ipsf once or twice a year for the natural algae (my tangs love the stuff) and was going to order another batch. I did not see them on his site last time but meant to ask. Maybe I'll do that since I have to order algae again here in about a month.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Again I have NPS tank, and temperature was not mention but my temperature is at 74 degrees plus or minus 1 degrees.